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Edited By Keith Allan and Kasia M. Jaszczolt

This book "fills the unquestionable need for a comprehensive and up-to-date handbook on the fast-developing field of pragmatics" and "includes contributions from many of the principal figures in a wide variety of fields of pragmatic research as well as some up-and-coming pragmatists."

Book Information

This work presents a summary of the Vlach Grammar in English and Greek. TheVlach language is defined as the language of the Latinophone nomadsinhabiting the Pindos Mountains in HEPEIROS. This language has been spokensince the 2nd century B.C. and it has been sporadically written since the16th century AD. The Latinophones were spread into small groups of peopleappointed by the Romans to guard the mountain passages of the Roman Empire.They turned into nomadic life out of necessity. Typical among those peoplewere “the Hepeirotes”, or the inhabitants of Hepeiros, the mainland in thenorthwest corner of Greece, the descendants of the ancient Mollossoi andHaones.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the latinophones abandoned the lowlandcity centers and inhabited the mountain and forested areas, where theyresumed-again-nomadic life. The Hepeirotes nomads reached the maximum oftheir economic development in the 17th century A.D. Despite their wealth,they maintained a low preference for their personal education and theeducation of their children. They maintained that all the nomads needed wasonly some ability to read and write and to carry out some arithmeticaloperations. However, what they refused to themselves, they gave abundantlyto their fellow countrymen. It is well known that the “Hepeirotes”, theVlachs, as they called themselves, carried out extensive profitable tradeabroad, in Eastern Europe, in the Balkans, in the Ottoman Empire, in Egypt,and elsewhere. They donated huge amounts of their profits to trusted fundsin their mother country which they invested in Public Health by buildingHospitals, in Education, (Primary, Secondary and even Post-Secondary) bybuilding Teachers Colleges, Supreme quality Lyceums or High Schools) andTechnical Schools. Widely known are their names, because they exist evento-day: Zosimaia Academia, Metsovion Polytechneion, Arsakeion, Zappeion,Bageion and others, were the names of national foundations established byEpeirotes-benefactors for the national (Greek)-benefit.

However, the development of the Vlach language was neglected. The Epeiroteslived in the midst of other Greek, who used their superior language astheir means of communication, a tool for skilful writing, and a beautifulmedium for expression, the Greek language.

Vlach Grammar has the fundamental structure and the basic rules of Latinand it shows that it has had some contact with Romanian, as well as itbears extensive signs of contact with Greek to a sizeable fraction of itsvocabulary. So, Vlach in a first approach, was compared with Latin andRomanian and similarities and differences observed were pointed out.Grammar rules observed were collected laboriously and were listed in theparagraphs in a logical manner. The result that came out is an “amateur’sGrammar” of an “amateur’s Language”.